Legislature To Investigate State's Surplus Food Rejection

December 18, 1985|by STEPHEN DRACHLER, The Morning Call

As some counties throughout the region began to distribute their latest allotments, the Legislature's watchdog committee agreed yesterday to investigate Pennsylvania's problem-plagued surplus food distribution program.

The Legislative Budget and Finance Committee will place top priority on the performance audit of the federally funded Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program, said its chairman, Sen. Clarence Bell, R-Delaware.

The state program has been under fire since it was revealed a month ago that the state Agriculture Department had rejected 203 truckloads of cheese and other surplus foods that the federal government had made available for distribution to Pennsylvania's needy.

Gov. Dick Thornburgh, saying he had never been informed of the department's action, reversed the move and requested that the state be granted its full allotment of surplus food for October and November from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The state had rejected the food, fearing that federal funds, used to administer the program, would be cut off. Pennsylvania received $2.5million last year to administer the program and to transport and store the food.

As soon as the department's July request became public, critics in the Legislature began to demand investigations and resignations of the officials involved in the decision.

An unidentified Agriculture Department official was formally reprimanded and the state House voted 196-4 to ask for an investigation by the non- partisan House-Senate watchdog committee.

The legislative committee will conduct a comprehensive examination of the program in Pennsylvania, said Richard Dario, executive director of the committee.

He said the committee will look at the program's efficiency, effectiveness, compliance with laws and will see if it is providing the intended results.

The committee has a June 30, 1986 deadline, but Bell said he hopes the audit will be completed sooner.

Rep. David Wright, D-Clarion, a member of the committee and the chief sponsor of the House resolution asking for the probe, said "our intent is not to have a which hunt. What we really want to do is correct a problem . . . that is unconscionable."

John Nikoloff, a spokesman for the Agriculture Department, said the department will cooperate with the committee. Bell had warned during the committee's meeting that it would use its subpoena power if needed to obtain records needed for the investigation.

While the committee was meeting, surplus food was being readied for distribution in at least two area counties, some of which were questioning the adequacy of the pro- gram.

In Schuylkill County, coordinator Mal Bartram, complained that the county's shipment of surplus food will not meet the even the minimum needs.

She said the county was receiving 2,295 cases of cheese, down from the 4,800 it received in September. The butter allotment fell from September's 1,130 cases to 306 cases, with reductions in the amount of other surplus foodstuffs.

"Whoever is first in line are the one who are going to get it," Bartram said. "We've been proud and pleased as to how we have this (distribution) down to an art, and then we get the notice and we are shot down."

In Monroe County, Dot Kaufman, executive director of the Area Office on Aging, said that the county received the allotment it had been expecting, with no unexpected shortfall. It will be distributed today, she said.

But reductions have also been reported in Northampton County, where the cheese allotment was cut by 22 percent to 2,500 cases, according to James Stephenson, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Food and Nutrition. Northampton's butter allotment dropped by two-thirds, to 333 cases, he said

Montgomery County also had its allotment reduced, but Melvin East, executive director of the Opportunity Board of Montgomery County, said he's not complaining, because he had originally planned for no surplus food this month due to the state's request.

East said the county is receiving 4,254 cases of cheese and 576 cases of butter to distribute to the estimated 10,000 eligible recipients. In September, the county received 6,000 cases of cheese and 2,158 cases of butter. Some of the butter, however, was determined to be unfit for consumption.

While some counties have not gotten what they expected, Bucks County has a different problem - too much food.

Greg Gale, administrative coordinator of the Bucks County Opportunity Council, said he won't accept all of the food the state has said Bucks is entitled to.

"I couldn't effectively take all of this," he said, adding that the cost of storing the food until it would be needed is prohibitive.

Gale said the state allocated Bucks 4,009 cases of cheese when it realistically could use just 2,000 cases, the amount it received in in June. It was also eligible for an increased allotment of butter, he said.